Home Vegetable & Fruit Gardening – Organic Farming

Home Grown Popcorn

You may think I am crazy, but I harvested carrots this week. Crazier still, there are more out in the garden beds. If the temperatures stay this way I do not have to worry about the soil freezing.

My harvest from this past week.

These “ugly-ish” carrots tasted great. Normally I do not have problems with carrot pests. Recently, the tops of a few carrots have been nibbled on.

Carrot with some insect damage.

I walked past my popcorn to many times without cooking some up. I selected to ears and shucked them. I was struck by the color of the ears. The kernels were shiny and hard.

Two ears of popcorn

Peeling the kernels off took a bit of time. While separating the kernels I wondered if they were too dry or if they would pop at all.

While in the grocery store I found a Whirley Pop, and I thought that would be the best way to pop my corn. There are other ways to popcorn; a dutch oven, frying pan, and you can even microwave it yourself.

All it took was 1/2 cup of corn, three tablespoons of olive oil, and a Whirley pop

The Whirley Pop instructions state it should take about three minutes to pop corn. I found it took a little longer.

Success!

This bowl did not last long, I ruined my lunch – oh well. Everyone who tried it said the flavor was great.

I ate to the bottom of the bowl with scientific curiosity. I wondered how many kernels would remain un-popped.

About ten to fifteen kernels left at the bottom.

After a couple bowls of popcorn I was convinced. Homegrown popcorn has something that store-bought popcorn does not. I found myself wondering why I would buy this in a store again. If you enjoy popcorn I recommend growing this at home. I felt more successful growing popcorn than growing sweet corn. I was able to get many more two ear plants with popcorn.

What enjoyable surprises have you grown? What crops do you grow that you no longer buy at the store?

Enjoy this season, learn from last season, and look forward to next season.

We LOVE our Whirly-Pop (on our second one!), and now I’m inspired to grow the popcorn! If you want a Kettle Corn flavor, add a teaspoon of sugar to the kernels and oil as you begin. The sugar will caramelize onto the popped corn. We do this in a hand-shaken stock pot as clean up is a little harder with sugar.